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TOPIC: My First Kratom Experience Today!

Hi Everyone,
Well, after much debating and stalling, I finally got up the nerve to try the Red Bali kratom I had ordered from the folks at Top Extracts.
I made it into a tea because I figured it would go down smoother and less nasty that way.
I made two small bottles. One with just 2 grams of the Red Bali
Another bottle with 3 grams.

Please keep in mind, I am a person already on a narcotic pain medication (vicodin) for a chronic pain condition, but my Doctor refuses to increase my dose to help me with the pain I get later in the day once my medication has all been taken and the pain rears it's ugly head.
I waited till I was sitting with an empty stomach and hadn't taken my vicodin for a few hours.
I started with the 2 gram bottle and drank slowly, writing down the time I started drinking it to keep an eye on how long it would take to feel anything.
After 30 minutes, I wasn't feeling much, so I opened up the bottle of 3grams kratom tea and began drinking that, but
decided to only drink half the bottle no matter what I was feeling since it was my first time and I didn't want to over-do it.
Well, sure enough after about another 20 minutes I definitely was feeling more "relaxed", "chill" would be the best way to describe it. And it was definitely knocking my pain out.
However, it was purely sedating in it's effects. I didn't feel any "euphoria" or "mental alertness" as I've heard Red Bali often described.
It's definitely good stuff...and I would use it for late date/early evening use when I'm not planing on doing much but relaxing to go to bed soon.
But I was interested in mixing some White Borneo or White Maeng Da with the Red Bali so that It might provide me with a little kick of "mental stimulation".
I don't want to be jittery, But I'm looking for something that will give me a little more "get up and lets get stuff done" effect, that will blend nicely with a Red strain like the Red Bali I took.
Does anyone have any recommendations?

I plan to be very careful and am looking to see if I can ease myself off the Vicodin with Kratom, but I need to see if it can provide a similar effect in both pain killing quality, and the little "energy kick/euphoria" that Vicodin gives. Because as nice as the Red Bali alone is for pain and relaxation, it does make me feel a little "spaced out"

Hello dessertgirl.
The good news is kratom works for you, you did feel pain relief.
The kratom issues- do not be too hung up on each strains name descriptions. Red bali is supposed to be a faster Red? Well maybe not from Top extracts or even maybe not the current batch you received.
Yes you might try to mix in a white to try to help your Red bali be less sedating. I see from their site they only have a selection of 3 Reds. You might try their Horn or Maeng Da.
Reds are typically for pain releif. The higher the dose of any kratom the more sedation.But you are competing with Vicodin to acheive pain relief not sure if lowering the dose will help. You could try - slightly decrease the dose I do that with bentuangies, usually the most sedating strain, to dial down the sedation, you might lose the pain relief its good to take notes and keep track to remember what works.

Best to sample around to find Reds that have more mental alertness. There are many out there.
After my initial experience/experiment with kratom. I started only with Reds but have moved to Green Strains. Greens were very trial and error to find ones that offered pain relief, all greens give me energy, I use them for work now and switch to reds at night.

I am listing my Reds I find I can get things done with only for an example. These work for me at my dose might not work for you.
Red Hulu, Red Thai, Red Papua- Insense/ Goldleaf botanicals
2 Reds from Releaf LLC. (you message them and ask for suggestions of less sedating reds)
Red Maeng Da- from Online Kratom

Many vendors you can contact before you buy and ask them which Reds are more "get up and lets get stuff done". They should be able to help.

You will get more suggestions soon. We are here to help answer your kratom questions.

Thank you for your suggestions
Yes I had a feeling I'd have to go through some trial and error with the strains/colors of kratom to find the one that would work for me.
Even though it didn't "replace" the feeling of having a vicodin in my system in the complete sense,
I can see where kratom can definitely be a HUGE benefit for people coming off either prescription narcotics, or something like heroin.
It absolutely took the edge off that uneasy feeling you get when your body needs it's next dose of medication and you start feeling icky. It took that away completely, and it takes the "urge" away.
I took my "kratom tea" about 4 hours ago and even had some lunch just awhile ago and I'm still feeling pretty decent.
I'll take your advice and try some different Reds (I have a Thai Red from Kratora that I'm going to try tomorrow)
and I'll check out what the different vendors suggest.
I'm just glad it worked and I didn't have any unwanted side effects.
Thanks again Nan70

From my experience, if I take a few Vicodin through the day, kratom just doesn't work much for me (I take greens for energy and mood) until they're totally out of my system. Maybe 36 hours. So taking the reds will help you get there but once you taper off them all together, you 'll see it work even better because you'll get more of the mood lift it offers, as well as the pain relief. I just don't get much of the energy or mood lift if Vicodin is in my system.
K88

Desertgirl19, I think it is great that you are experiencing Kratom. So, my advice is to continue to experiment with strains and take your Kratom first thing in the morning. I usually do a Green 50% Red 30% white 20% or something like that. I find my best Kratom experience is in the morning my first 1-3 hours after kratom is really my best part of the day. Wether I am working or chilling.

Then later in the day at work I have Norco that I can take if I feel I need it and that is usually 4-5 hours after my morning Kratom.

Then when I get home I go for the Kratom and I focus on Reds,Yellows, Buetangies, blends that are for pain relief and then I enjoy my evening winding down. I try to save my pain medication for when I have pain. I force myself to try and save/conserve my pain meds until I really feel like I need them.

Keep experimenting with Kratom to suppliment your pain relief needs. I try to order several different colors/strains from a few different vendors. This helps keep my Kratom experiences fresh and effective. I never order a lot of one strain. I spread things around always giving myself options.

I would try and add a green strain in with the red bali. Top Extracts super green is a very good option as well as others from a variety of vendors recommended in this forum. It will take some experimentation with the kratom strain ratios to reach the sweet spot. Good luck to you in your journey!

Because you have an opiate history you will not get some of the effects often attributed to Kratom such as "euphoria" (I have never had that either and I could use some of that).

You may get better results from Kratom by getting off the vicodin altogether. Many have done it. I was taking oxy and simply switched to Kratom after a short taper and had no problems.

BTW I know you do not want to hear this but your doctor is practicing good medicine by not giving you more of the opiate. Over time opiates simply stop working as your opiate receptors develop tolerance to increased doses. You really are MUCH better off moving to Kratom if you can get good pain relief that way.

One of the MAIN advantages of being only on Kratom is that you are in control again and you do not have to report to a gatekeeper for your pain relief medication.

Glad you are having good effects with tea but to really get good control you would be better actually measuring the dose of Kratom (in GRAMS) that you take. This gives you much more precise control.

It is such a great feeling to be in control again!

BTW...I would not recommend any experimentation with different strains until you are off the opiate altogether, BECAUSE it is difficult to differentiate the very subtle effects of the different strains if you have other substances in your system AND you will likely not notice any energizing effects from the Red Bali while the opiates are still in your system.

Unlike Kratom which has BOTH energizing and sedating properties, opiates have only sedating effects SO it might be difficult to distinguish some of the energizing effects if the opiates are still in your system.

I thank everyone for their input and you're probably right...I'm probably not feeling the FULL effect of the Kratom just yet as I am slowly trying to wean myself off Vicodin (I've been on it for many years so I didn't wan't to just tear myself off it and jump to Kratom not knowing if it would help).
But I DO feel the effects of the Kratom, even if they may be a bit muted, I definitely can tell it's working in my system.
Yesterday I only took 2 of my vicodins (instead of my usual 4, because I was able to substitute it with Kratom).
My goal is to take less and less Vicodin everyday until I'm completely off it.
However....I DO plan to continue getting my Vicodin Rx's filled each month at the pharmacy and "Stockpiling" them away in my closet while I stick to Kratom.
Why?
Because I don't know what the future of Kratom is going to be. I pray they keep this wonderful plant legal in my state and that the "powers that be" in Washington/FDA get the Scientific data they need to deem this plant worthy of "Regulation", and not just throwing it into Schedule I territory.

Because if that happened...and I was on Kratom ONLY, I'd be stuck - as would thousands of us out there who are relying on Kratom to help with legitimate chronic pain conditions. Then we'd be back at the mercy of our Doctors, and the FDA/CDC and their strong-arm crack-down on the opiate epidemic in this country.

Most doctor's won't even deal with the medication requirements of people with Chronic pain when that medication is a narcotic- they don't want to risk their license, and for me personally, the Pain management clinics refuse to help me because they do not honor my condition (Interstitial Cystitis- also called "Painful Bladder Syndrome") as a Pain condition. Funny, the word "painful" is built right into the diagnosis, but it's not a "pain" condition.
Anyway, I don't want to go off on a rant about the medical establishment and their handling of the opiate crisis. Everyone is going to have their opinions.
I'm just glad I found kratom, and hope to god we'll be able to keep it legal (and help to make it legal in those states where it currently is not).
We came along way with Medical Marijuana-Cannabis. Hopefully Kratom will follow the same path and it's benefits will be acknowledged and embraced someday.
Thank you everyone.

Including stockpiling opiates for the zombie apocalypse as well as hoarding excess kratom I hope I never need, frankly.

Cutting your dose in half is SIGNIFICANT and I cannot wait until 3 days after you’ve tried it CT (cold turkey) SOMEDAY because kratom really helps more over time - in my case. Even tho tolerance becomes a factor. I take kratom at first sign of discomfort and I don’t skip days like some do. You get more “high”ish by waiting longer between doses, but I prefer to JUST BE RELIEVED of PAIN and it’s not every day. But it’s often! Often is good!

I don’t even HAVE a diagnosis besides depression (and fibro BUT NOT) and my drs know I am not lying about pain but I’d be screwed without their support, and kratom. Good idea refilling your script for the zombie apocalypse also!

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